Bolivian Altiplano & Salar de Uyuni (May 17-20)

Our four-day tour around Southwest Boliva was absolutely fantastic! Our guide Panchito was excellent (and hilarious, he's the guy with the helmet on in the pictures), the cook was his wife and she made us delicious meals! Our jeep mates were a nice Australian couple and an English interpreter, although Deb did a lot of the translating as well.

:: Day One ::

We were supposed to meet at the agency at 9am sharp, so we got up early enough to eat breakfast and go to the bank to cash traveller’s cheques beforehand. For some reason, the lady at the cambio needed a photocopy of Lincoln’s passport, so I had to run down the street looking for the photocopy place. I got back to discover Lincoln had had a nice conversation with the lady in Spanish while I was gone – he is getting much better at practicing his Spanish. It turned out that we didn’t need to rush because we didn’t end up leaving until after 10:00 anyways. We met our jeep-mates, Roger and Emma, who were a nice couple from Australia. The people we had met on the train yesterday were going on tours from the same agency but were in different jeeps. We would keep running into them throughout the tour though. Our driver and guide was nicknamed Panchito (his real name was Francisco), and his wife Filomena was our cook. We also had Nohomy along, who was doing the English translations of what Panchito said. In total we had seven people in the jeep. It was a good think we didn’t have any more people sign up because things were pretty tight with just four of us!

We soon came to like Panchito and Filomena a lot. Panchito had a great sense of humour and was hilarious. Filomena was quieter, but she was very sweet and an excellent cook! Panchito wore a motorcycle helmet all the time when he was driving, as well as many layers of clothing and insulated coveralls – to keep himself warm he claimed. He looked so funny, like a little spaceman. As we drove along, Panchito told us stories about the regions we were driving through, as well as giving us detailed information about the geology and climate. Nohomy was really nice too, a very sweet young girl (she was 20). I also helped with the translations as well, and continue to be amazed by how much Spanish I understand. I just wish I could speak it as well in return! Our first scenic spot was El Sillar, where we had been to yesterday on the tour, but we looked at it from a different angle this time. Next stop was a very small pueblo called Cabrillo, where Nohomy’s mother lived. Since Nohomy joined our tour at the last minute, her mother did not know she would be there. It was a nice surprise for her, as she had not seen her mother in six months. In the village we spoke and played with the children, and Lincoln found the opportunity to hand out the first batch of pens that Adam had given him. We stopped for lunch in a beautiful setting and ate sandwiches and tomales (Lincoln raved about how delicious they were, I didn’t try them because they had meat in them). We continued on through some great scenery until we reached San Antonio, near Cerro Lipez (a snow-capped mountain), where we spent the night in very basic accommodations. Only cold water and minimal electricity. It was a very cold night (got down to around zero), and we were thankful to have our warm down sleeping bags! Filomena made us a great soup to warm us up though, and Panchito told us his life story, including how he had grown up alone (his mother died when he was 10 and he never knew his father) as a poor child with barely any clothes to wear. It was a very touching story about how his life changed for the better, and how he met and married Filomena. He also told us some funny stories about some inventions that he has come up with over the years!

As we went to our rooms to sleep, we couldn’t help but stop and admire the stars for a while – they were fantastic. We had climbed to about 4200m today, so we were all feeling a little out of breath just walking around. Luckily none of us had any serious altitude symptoms. Lincoln and I both had trouble sleeping this first night, which is common at altitude.

:: Day Two ::

We had to wake up at 4:30 this morning because we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We reached the base of Cerro Lipez around sunrise, which was fantastic, and Panchito told us an amusing story about Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the Americas. Close to the base of the mountain were some ruins of a pretty big Spanish colonial town that had been built to extract gold from the nearby hills, approximately 500 years ago. The Spaniards had enslaved the local indigenous people and forced them to build the town, and executed them if they didn’t work hard enough. We weren’t expecting to see ruins on this tour, so it was a nice surprise. We saw quite a few Lagoons today too, with each of them being slightly different, having different coloured water or being in a different setting. It was really amazing to see these shallow lagoons at such high altitudes. We saw Laguna Morejon, Laguna Celeste, the town of Quetena Chica (where Panchito stopped to radio back to the agency that we were okay), Quetena Grande (which is actually much smaller than Quetena Chica), Laguna Hedionda, Kolpa Laguna, Salar de Chalviri (borox flats, Lincoln was fascinated by this), Rocas de Dali (huge strangely shaped rocks plopped randomly in a vast open field – from a distance they look like abandoned homes, but they were actually tossed there by the nearby volcanos). We went for a dip at the hot springs near Laguna Hedionda, which was fun. The air was pretty cold, so we had to get changed quickly before and after swimming in the warm water. We also saw Laguna Blanca and Laguna Verde today as well – Laguna Verde being my favourite with its bright teal waters and mountainous backdrop. We continued driving to reach the Geysers right around sunset, which was a great time to see them. This was a very active volcanic area, with pools of boiling mud bubbling and spurting away, steam being whisked away by the high winds, the foul smell of sulphur in the air, and our little spaceman walking around in the midst of it all – perfect! Just before we reached the geysers, we reached the highest point of the tour – 5200m!

Tonight we slept in a place called Huallajara, which is a group of buildings that serve as hostels for these tours, close to Laguna Colorada. We arrived after dark, which made for a very long day of riding around in the jeep (13 hours!). The moment we arrived, even before we could get out of the truck, a little girl climbed in and wanted to play with us. She stuck to me like glue, and insisted that I carry her around for a while. When we sat down for our tea (brought to us by the lovely Filomena), she crawled into my lap, made me make her a bun with dulce de leche on it, and some tea! After she spilt tea on my leg and herself, I would let her sit in my lap anymore (she was pretty smelly too, but I guess smelly kids need love too!), so she cried for a bit and then left with her bun and tea. There was a wood stove in the room where we ate our dinner, which warmed us up a bit, but the room we all slept in was big with no heat. We put our sleeping bags underneath the blankets that were provided and slept quite well, even though we were still at 4300m.

:: Day Three ::

We were able to sleep in until 6:15 this morning, although I didn’t hear the alarm go off, so we were a bit late getting up. We had a delicious breakfast of pancakes before heading out to see Laguna Colorada shortly after sunrise. It was a great sight, with the waters being red, and flocks of flamingos feeding off the red algae in the water. Yes, you read that right, flamingos at 4000m above sea level! There were even three different varieties of them, including the rare James species. The lagoon is fed by a warm spring, which keeps the water from getting too cold for the flamingos. From here we drove through some more spectacular scenery to reach the Arbol de Piedra, which is a rock formation that looks like a tree. In this area were several other huge rock formations that had been carved by the wind and rain erosion. I climbed to the top of a big one with Nohomy while Lincoln sat in the car, because he “had seen lots of this stuff in Utah”. We drove through the Desierto de Siloli, saw a few more Lagunas (Ramaditas, Honda, Charcota, Hedionda #2, Canapa), went to the lookout for the Ollague volcano, and drove past the Salar de Chiguana and Salar de Laguani. It was all so beautiful that we almost started taking it for granted. At one of the places we stopped, Panchito told us he had a surprise for us, and made us look away while he snuck around behind some rocks and stuck his head up through a hole. When we turned around all we could see was his head poking out of the rock – it was a very funny sight! He also took us to a special place for lunch, with more cool rock formations – he said it was an extra because we were such a good group. We had to eat in the truck though, because it was very windy and cold. Later on, Panchito asked me to check with the group and see if they would prefer to stay in a salt hotel for the evening instead of the usual accommodations in the town of San Juan. It would cost a bit extra, but would be a fun experience. I asked the rest of the gang, and we all heartily agreed that the salt hotel would be the best option. However, in involved driving for a couple more hours today, but also meant that we could sleep in until 5:00 in the morning instead of 3:00 if we stayed at San Juan! Panchito wanted us to get up early so we could be on the Salar de Uyuni for sunrise.

:: Day Four ::

We were glad that we had started the tour in Tupiza and ended it in Uyuni for a few reasons, one of them being that the piece de resistance – the Salar itself, was left for the last day. The Salar de Uyuni is the largest salt flat in the world at 12,000 square kilometres. It stretches on as far as the eye can see in some directions, and the depth of the salt ranges from 15cm to 60m. Watching the sunrise from the middle of the flats was breathtaking – the colours of the sky, the salt, and the mountains around the rim of the flats was spectacular. This area used to be covered by ocean, and when the land rose, some of the salt water was trapped inside the mountains until it eventually evaporated, leaving behind all the salt.

After ooh-ing and ahhh-ing over the sunrise, we went to an island in the middle of the flats called Isla de Pescadores, which is an island made up mostly of coral and some volcanic rock. The coral had formed underneath the ocean, and as the water dried up so did the coral. Growing on this island were millions of cacti of all different sizes, with the tallest one being 12 metres high. The cacti only grow 1cm every year, which means that the tallest cacti was 1200 years old! There is a picture of this cactus in the gallery for the Salar – try and see if you can spot Panchito standing at the base of it!

We hiked to the highest point on the island. Seeing as how we were now only at 3600m, we weren’t as out of breath as the higher altitudes, but it still wasn’t like normal. The views from the top of the island were worth the climb, and watching the tiny jeeps drive across the white flats gave a good indication of how big it really was. After our hike we went back down to the “shores” of the island where Filomena had made another delicious breakfast for us. Because the salt flat is so white, and set against a blue sky, it is the perfect spot to play around with perspective in pictures. Panchito took us to the best place in the flats where you couldn’t see any mountains on the horizon, and we had fun coming up with different pictures to take. We knew that we were going to do this, so even before we arrived Lincoln had come up with the “q-tip” picture where I am holding Lincoln like he is a q-tip and sticking him in my ear.

We drove across to the other side of the flats, and not far from there was Uyuni, our final destination. Panchito took us to the Train Cemetary, where lots of train cars have been abandoned and left to rust. Filomena had made us our final lunch, and it was sad to be saying goodbye to them. Panchito gave us a little speech and told us how much he liked us, and we did the same in return. He brought us back into the town and drove us to a couple of hostels until we found one with space. I almost cried when we said goodbye to them! They were the most adorable couple.

Lincoln and I decided to stay at Hotel Avenida for 50 bolivianos (8 bs = US$1) and a shared bathroom. Roger & Emma tried to find a place with a kitchen but didn’t have any luck, so they ended up back at the same hotel as us. We all went to the bus station to get tickets out of Uyuni for tomorrow (they were going to La Paz, we were going to Sucre). We got tickets for 10am, but Roger & Emma found out that there was a train leaving at midnight, so they opted for that. We all went out for dinner at Minuteman Pizza, which has the reputation of being the best pizza in South America. We were disappointed though – it was okay, but the pizza we had at Guerrin in B.A. (downstairs) was definitely better. Minuteman is very touristy (run by an American), and the food is good, but after we left we kind of wished that we had eaten at one of the smaller local establishments, and supported the locals more. The next morning we ate breakfast at a “local” restaurant, so that eased our conscience a little. We were really tired after the long days of the tour, so we went to bed very early, dreaming about the beautiful things we had seen.